By 1930
the Durrett family had moved to Dallas, Dallas Co., Texas.
Five years later the 1940 census shows Elmer C. Durrett,
Jr. had completed four years of high school and was a
lodger in Elk, Beckham Co., Oklahoma in the boarding house of
Inez
S. Tisdal; his occupation was ball player. While
playing
semi-professional baseball in Oklahoma, scout Ted McGrew for the
Brooklyn Dodgers spotted him. In 1941 Red signed with the
Johnstown Johnnies of the Penn State League. His career was
interuppted during World War II when he joined the Marines in
January 1942. His boot training was in San Diego and he
fought in
the Pacific, engaging in combat in Guadacanal. He suffered
physically with malaria, shell-shock, dysentary and a foot infection.
He was brought back to the United States on a hospiital ship,
spending five months in a California hospital. He received a
medical discharge 9 April 1943, after serving thirteen months.

Reporting
to the Brooklyn Dodgers spring training camp at Bear Mountain, New York
in 1944 although he was still recovering from his illnesses.
Although assigned to the Montreal Royals of the International
League, he was called up by the Dodgers in September of that
same
year, for whom he play eleven games. His position on the team
was outfielder during the 1944 - 1945 season.
The next
season he started playing with the Dodgers and played eight games, but
was, once again, sent back to Montreal. The big story in 1945
was the signing of Jackie Robinson with the Dodgers. He
played his first season of professional baseball the Dodgers top minor
league affliate, the Montreal Royals. It is possible that
Red Durrett played with Jackie Robinson during the 1946 season.

The
Montreal Gazette
September 15, 1944

Red Durrett Stars
Homers in Eighth as Dodgers win 5-4 over Braves
Brooklyn,
Sept. 14 - (AP) - A home run by Red Durrett, who fought with the
marines on Guadacanal, in the eighth tied the score and a single with
the bases loaded in the ninth by Augie Galan gave the Brooklyn Dodgers
a 5-4 victory over the Boston Braves in the opener of a curtailed
double-header today. The second game was postponed by rain
after
an inning and a half had been completed.
Fred Wells, right-handed
pitcher obtained from New Orleans several days ago, pitched the best
seven innings for the Dodgers, and gave up all the Braves runs in his
last inning. A two-run homer by Stu Hofferth and Tommy
Holmes'
double accounted for the runs.
Les Webber was the winnter and Ira Hutchinson third of four Braves'
pitchers, was the loser.
Boston - - - - - 000 000 400 - 4 10 2
Brooklyn - - - - 003 000 011 - 5 11 0
Batteries : Javery Hutchings (6), Hutchinson (7), Barrett (9), and
Hoffert, Wells, Webber (8) and Owen.

He
continued to play in the minor leagues with the Cincinnati Reds until
1950; after the end of his 9-season career, Red worked for the United
States Postal Service, from which he retired in 1982.

Red
& Nelle Evans married 14 January 1942 in Dallas, Texas, before
he
went to boot camp in California; their marriage ended in divorced 25
October 1971 in Dallas Co., Texas; however, they remarried about two
and half months later on 14 January 1972.

Red
died at his home on 17 January 1992 in Waxahachie, Ellis Co., Texas at
the age of 71 and is buried in Laurel Land Memorial Park, Dallas,
Dallas Co., Texas.